Truth & Movies: A Little White Lies Podcast

This week’s Truth & Movies sees Tom Hardy climb back into the superhero movie saddle for Venom, quite possibly the strangest odd couple comedy of the year. Elsewhere Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga hit all the right notes in the melancholy musical drama A Star is Born. Adam Woodward, Elena Lazic and Hannah Woodhead offer their thoughts on all that before taking a dip into the murky CGI waters of 1997’s comic book folly, Spawn, for Film Club.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week’s Truth & Movies sees Michael Leader, Manuela Lazic and Hannah Woodhead sing the praises of veteran leading lady Glenn Close, who’s on unbeatable form in Björn Runge’s marital drama The Wife, alongside Jonathan heady tale of female friendship and skate culture, Skate Kitchen. And for Film Club the podders reappraise Close’s Oscar-nominated performance in the 1987 “bunny boiler” classic Fatal Attraction.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michael Leader is in the host’s chair this week as Truth & Movies gets spooky with director Lenny Abrahamson’s gothic ghost story The Little Stranger. There’s still stranger goings on in Climax, a drug-addled danse macabre from Argentine provocateur Gaspar Noé. Adam Woodward and David Jenkins are on hand to offer their thoughts, and they’re joined by special guest Sharm Murugiah, illustrator of the brilliant new gift book ‘Where’s The Dude? The Great Movie Spotting Challenge’ – inspired by this week’s Film Club pick, the Coen brothers’ 1990s cult classic The Big Lebowski.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the show this week, Michael Leader, Matt Thrift and David Jenkins scope out Shane Black’s loose sequel to ’80s action-horror classic Predator, starring Boyd Holbrook and Trevante Rhodes. Also on the docket is Harry Dean Stanton’s swansong, Lucky, in which the late acting icon gives one of the finest performances of his career. And in Film Club, the gang revisits Shane Black’s directorial debut from 2005, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, with Robert Downey Jr.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the latest Truth & Movies, Michael Leader, Rowan Woods and James Luxford take in two new releases about the pitfalls of youth. First up is Desiree Akhavan’s sparkling second feature, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, set in a conversion therapy camp in the early 1990s, followed by Bart Layton’s unconventional heist caper, American Animals. And continuing the conversion therapy theme, this week’s Film Club offering is Jamie Babbit’s cult LGBT comedy, But I’m a Cheerleader.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, we kick things off by chatting to Pawel Pawlikowski, director of swooning black and white romance, Cold War, before discussing the film. Then we take out our critical knives for Brian Henson's already much-maligned rude puppet cop comedy, The Happytime Murders, which co-stars Melisa McCarthy alongside a rabble of felt creations. Then we cast our minds back to 1989 when Peter Jackson was whisking movies out of the air and on a shoe-string budget: X-rated puppet opus Meet the Feebles is our Film Club selection. With us this week are Sophie Monks Kaufman and Hannah Woodhead, who also preview their forthcoming trip to the Toronto International Film Festival.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week we’re joining by special guest Bart Layton, director of the upcoming heist caper American Animals. He previews the film ahead of its UK premiere at Film 4’s Sumer Screen at Somerset House, where this episode was recorded. Up for review are Richard Ayre’s high court drama, The Children Act, and Spike Lee’s white supremacist-skewering BlacKkKlansman. Michael Leader, David Jenkins and Hannah Woodhead also look back at Lee’s hit comedy from 1986, She’s Gotta Have It, for Film Club.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Secrets and lies abound in this episode of Truth & Movies, as in Film Club we revisit arguably the greatest trick Orson Welles ever pulled, the 1973 essay film F for Fake. In cinemas this week, documentarian Mark Cousins pens a personal ode to his filmmaking idol in The Eyes of Orson Welles. And in The Equalizer 2, Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua return to the scene of their hit 2014 vigilante thriller. Michael Leader, Darren Richman and Adam Woodward are on hand to dissect three very different films.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the cinema... this week’s show sees Jason Statham take on an epically-sized shark in sci-fi schlock-buster The Meg, while a Paraguayan aristocrat embarks on a journey of self-discovery in Marcelo Martinessi’s debut feature The Heiresses. Michael Leader, Beth Webb and Hannah Woodhead are on board to offer their thoughts on all that, plus we take a look back at the classic ’80s black comedy, Heathers.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In an action-packed episode of Truth & Movies, Michael Leader is joined by two debutants - Ella Kemp and Kellie Weston - to review the week's film news and reviews. Up for consideration are the twentieth Marvel movie, Ant-Man And The Wasp, which - incredibly - unites Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas and Laurence Fishburne together on screen for the first time ever. There's also The Escape, a moving character study fronted by Gemma Arterton And for Film Club, there's Agnes Varda's French classic, Cléo from 5 to 7  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In an action-packed episode of Truth & Movies, Michael Leader, Elena Lazic and Adam Woodward salute an enduring and ever-durable Hollywood icon, Tom Cruise, who’s back for his sixth run out as IMF agent Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Also this week, Daniel Kokotajlo’s Apostasy offers a deeply personal and at times harrowing look inside a Jehovah’s Witnesses community. And in Film Club, the Ivory-Merchant romantic classic Maurice gets a welcome appraisal ahead of a 4K theatrical re-release.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There’s something in the air in this week’s Truth & Movies... Adam Woodward, Manuela Lazic and Hannah Woodhead confess their love for Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the long-awaited sequel to 2008’s hit ABBA musical, before taking a less approving look at Thai prison drama A Prayer Before Dawn, starring British rising star Joe Cole. Finally, we sing the praises of 1987’s classic Cher-fronted rom-com, Moonstruck, in our Film Club.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It’s an action-packed Truth & Movies this week, as Michael Leader, Matt Thrift and Hannah Woodhead get to grips with the latest Dwayne Johnson blockbuster, Skyscraper, as well as Brad Bird’s long-awaited sequel to his 2004 Pixar animated feature The Incredibles. Before that, the gang sing the praises of Paul Schrader’s searing exploration of faith in America, First Reformed, starring a career-best Ethan Hawke. In Film Club, another superlative Schrader effort, 1992’s Light Sleeper, gets a long overdue reappraisal.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this week’s episode of Truth & Movies, Michael Leader, Hannah Woodhead and Rowan Woods mull over two very different new releases – Kevin Macdonald’s docu-profile of the late American singer and sometime actor Whitney Houston, which features some big tunes and even bigger revelations, and the eye-brow raising gay bromance comedy Ideal Home, starring Paul Rudd and Steve Coogan. And in Film Club, the team sets Michael Cimino’s much-vaunted Vietnam drama The Deer Hunter in their collective crosshairs.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Benicio Del Toro joins us on the Truth & Movies sofa to discuss his role in the cartel crime saga Sicario 2: Soldado, the second part of a proposed trilogy. Michael Leader, Adam Woodward and Manuela Lazic are on hand to offer their thoughts on that film, as well as Debra Granik’s tender father-daughter survival story Leave No Trace, starring Ben Foster and impressive newcomer Thomasin McKenzie. It’s Granik’s first narrative feature since 2009’s Winter’s Bone, which gets a second pass from our expert panel in this week’s Film Club – just how good is Jennifer Lawrence’s breakout performance?  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.